D.A.R.E. Falls Victim To Their Aggressiveness By Publishing An Anti-Marijuana Article That Is Clearly Satire

Thanks to the internet, accessibility to breaking news stories — whether they be important world events or the latest celebrity happenings — has become easy. Along with the legit news, however, there are satire articles, news pieces written to come off as legit news until readers truly realize how ridiculous the piece really is.

The Inquisitr is known for debunking satire pieces that usually sweep social media, such as one that claimed Starbucks uses a “special ingredient” to flavor their drinks. Despite the fact it was debunked, James David Manning didn’t read the article in its entirety, thus reporting the satire as fact on his radio show, The Manning Report.

Now the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.), through their aggressiveness in attacking drug abuse, has fallen victim to a bogus report. Recently, D.A.R.E. published an anti-marijuana article as a means to scare people into prevention, not realizing the source cited wrote it as satire.

According to the Washington Post, D.A.R.E. published a news story about marijuana candies sold on the street, named “Uncle Tweety’s Chewy Flipper” and “Gummy Satans,” taking the United States by storm. The source, understanding that the article by Top News is satire, inquired D.A.R.E. about their article. D.A.R.E. ignored the inquiry and immediately removed their article without comment. Unfortunately for D.A.R.E., the truth has already been preserved within the internet through a saved screenshot, as shown below.

RYOT followed-up on D.A.R.E.’s blunder by provided numerous screenshots from D.A.R.E.’s website, puzzle-piecing them to show the article in its entirety. Not only that, they reported that despite D.A.R.E.’s aggressive methods in preventing drug abuse, it isn’t doing much good. A study conducted back in 2009 by NCBI found students enrolled in D.A.R.E.’s program are just as likely to use drugs as those who were not. Numerous other studies have concluded that D.A.R.E. does “little to nothing to combat drug use,” as reported by Scientific American.

To be fair, it is also reported that D.A.R.E. may have thought the satire article was legit given the fact that an article by the Associated Press through Huffington Post was sourced. Still, D.A.R.E. should have taken the time to see if said source had anything to do with the article itself or was used to help “enforce authenticity.”

[Featured Image via Maryland D.A.R.E., Post Image via Screen Capture of D.A.R.E. Official Website]